
"Beth, what about that coffee?"
"Coming… right now," she called back, satisfied that all was on the tray she carried, except her own cup. This, he noticed immediately when she set it on his desk.
"You're not having any, baby?" he questioned, looking up at her with those watery gray eyes that too much Scotch had tattooed with a crimson fringe. He smiled in part, his teeth and lips showing with contrasting white and red through the mow of graying whiskers covering his broad face. Shades of the poor-man's Hemingway, she derisively thought.
"No. I'm going down to the center to do some shopping," she casually replied, examining with feigned interest the work he had ready for her.
"Say… you look sharp, doll… real sexy!" he said, swiveling his chair around to better ogle her. "Now that's my gal! Look at those gams! Christ!"
She smiled to his compliment. "Is there anything you'd like before I leave?"
"Hmmmm, maybe… A fifteen minute taste of you might fire the day's production to no Goddamned end!"
The urge to ask him what he intended to do with the last ten of them, Beth forced herself to put to one side. Instead, she poured his coffee, adding two lumps of sugar. Some fresh air… that's what she needed… amongst other things…
